dcf10

We're in Alexandria, by the way. There's a company that makes custom acrylic tanks as narrow as 8" (http://walltanks.com/tank_4.php), but if we thought that on the rec room side, since we have room for a bow front, it'd be better to do that and get more space/better flow. But we aren't sure if we'd then have to support the front of the bow, which we wouldn't be able to do. It'd be nice to work with someone local.

Wow, Chad, that's amazing. And pretty much up our alley, since the house is really modern in design. I don't have pictures of the wall, because we're building it (somewhat) to suit the aquarium, with the main design limitations being that it can't be longer than 60" and the width of the wall is 10". On one side is the new rec room, on the other side is half stairwell and half an understair closet, where we plan to have a sump system and fortunately have access to water, so could pretty easily install an RO/DI system. So you'll see the aquarium from both sides, but about half of it will be going into the closet and so it's okay if some of the hoses, etc. are visible on that portion.

I do mean that the maximum front-to-back distance of the support underneath the tank is 10" - that is the width of the wall that it is going in, and we are planning for it to be built entirely within the wall. This is why I am asking about a bow-front tank, which could be a bit wider at the maximum, but I am not sure whether it would need support underneath the bowed section of the tank (i.e., the part that is wider than 10"). I read that acrylic tanks need to be supported entirely from below, but wondered if the bowed section could be unsupported, or if a glass bow-front tank would work. We're doing mostly soft coral, anemones, lost of cleaning crew members, with maybe 5 small fish. We figure we'll need a custom-built tank and are looking for any suggestions on good manufacturers and/or area designers. Thanks!

Hi, I'm new to WAMAS and new to the hobby. We're planning to put a reef tank into our wall, but the maximum width is 10" and length is 55-60" - we'd like it about 24" tall. A couple of questions - could we do a bow front tank, understanding that there would be 10" of support all the way across, but not below the part that bows out? If so, would we have to do glass, or could we do acrylic? Is one a better material than the other for this kind of installation? Finally, are there good custom tank builders in the area that folks would recommend? Thanks!